A blog by a Professional Genealogist who is the Houston County, TN. Archivist working in a county archives everyday

Saturday, September 5, 2015

This is the first post of “A
Genealogist In The Archives” blog.My
goal with this blog is to educate genealogists about the importance of archives
and all that they have to offer.There
are thousands of archives in the United States that are full of documents,
photographs, artifacts and other ephemera that is just waiting to be discovered
by YOU the genealogy researcher!

What Is A
Finding Aid?

If you have
ever been to a local or state archives doing research in a Manuscript
Collection you most likely have come across a “Finding Aid” within a specific
collection. Or maybe you have come
across a Finding Aid within an online collection.

A finding
aid is a document containing detailed information about a specific collection
of papers or records within an archive.Finding Aids are used by researchers and genealogists to determine
whether information within the collection is relevant to their research.The Finding Aid for a collection is usually
compiled by the archivist or librarian during the archival process.

The information
found in a Finding Aid may be different depending on the type of material it is
describing.Included in a Finding Aid is
a description of the scope of the collection, biographical and historical
information related to the collection and restrictions on the use of the
materials if there are any.

Finding Aids
also contain a list or inventory of the contents in the collection, these
inventories can be vague or they can be very detailed.

The Finding
Aid is a research tool that genealogist should pay attention to when
researching in Manuscript Collections at an archives.The Finding Aid should give you information
such as how large the collection is, who originally created the collection, the
processing history of the collection, the collection citation that should be
used, the scope and content of the collection and most importantly an inventory of what is in
the collection.

Genealogists
should be aware that not all Finding Aids list everything in a collection and
we should not depend on them to tell us the whole truth of what is in a
collection.It might still be necessary
to view all documents in a collection to make sure something was not missed.

Manuscript
Collections housed at local and state archives, genealogical societies,
historical societies and other repositories are a gold mine of genealogical
information.But like real gold mines, a
genealogist has to sometimes dig through the collections to find those nuggets
of genealogy gold.

So, why not
visit an archives where your ancestors lived and ask about their Manuscript
Collections, you might just be surprised at what you find!

Great job, Melissa! I will look forward to reading your blog. I love archives, volunteer in an archive (one without any archivists--we're all shooting from the seat of our pants), but hope to learn more!

Lisa, Thank You for volunteering at your archives! One of my things is to get everyone to volunteer at their local archives or records repository at least once a month! Without our volunteers we can't get the job done!

About Me

Melissa Barker is the Houston County, TN. Archivist and a Professional Genealogist, owner of Once Upon A Time Genealogy. She has over 26 years of genealogy research experience and 6 years experience in the Archives/Records Management field. Melissa is currently the Houston County, Tennessee Archivist/Records Manager that she helped to start from scratch in 2010. She established the Once Upon A Time Genealogy business in 2004 and helped clients by researching their histories in the Tennessee and Kentucky areas. She is now speaking, teaching and writing about genealogy research with an emphasis on archives research and records preservation.

Melissa is a 2009 graduate of the ProGen Study Group (an 18-month study of the book Professional Genealogist edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills). She is also a graduate of the Tennessee State Library and Archives Archives Institute, receiving her Certified Archival Records Manager certificate.

Melissa gives back to her local genealogy community by teaching a free genealogy class at her local library each month.

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